Oakville Real Estate News

Decorating With Neutral Shades

Give neutral shades a try!

Neutral colour may seem an oxymoron but think again.

These are shades that are happy to take a back seat to a room’s contents. Neutrals do more than quietly stand in the background, they anchor a room, create a mood and complement a busy pattern.

Taking their inspiration from nature, neutral colours are earth tones from the deepest browns to the palest grays, and even blues, blacks soft yellows. Consider blue skies, night skies and the seas below, a mountain range, a farmer’s field or setting sun. With all of this variety, neutrals are anything but boring. When neutrals are without any complementary patterns or textures in a room, they become dull or boring.

Neutrals enhance the other “colours”. Layering neutral shades and bold or bright shades together will allow texture to fill a room and create more interest.

To create a simple peaceful home, use off-white or beiges as paint colour or on dominant furniture. This will give a calming effect to the room. Or, give your home a warm comforting rustic feel by using dark neutrals, such as shades of brown, rust and black. Then add punches of colours throughout the room. Colourful fabrics, area rugs, artwork, vases, lampshades and pillows should draw some of their influence from the neutral colour in the room.

Keep in mind that neutral colours do have undertones or second shades to them. These undertones can be pink, tan, gold, yellow, blue or even peach. Make sure you are using neutrals and colours with the same undertones.

If Mother Nature can make a selection of neutral colours co-operate as a noticeable backdrop to some of her more spectacular displays, surely we can do the same at home.